Am I Dreaming?

“Life is so beautiful. Isn’t it?” Navneet said as he passed on the joint roll to me.

I laughed as I took the last drag.

“This setting sun, those birds flying back to their houses, this mesmerizing wind.” Navneet continued.

“You’re fine?” I asked laughing.

“Yeah. Merko kya hoga? (What’ll happen to me?)” Navneet said.

“Nothing,” I smiled, “Chale kya? (Let’s go?)” I asked.

“Where?” He asked.

“Abe jaha aaya h (Where you’ve come damn it!.) Up there, to attend the marriage ceremony.” I said while laughing.

“Oh! Yeah. Let’s go.” Navneet said.

We both laughed and went to the marriage ceremony.

It was our friend Krishnan getting married to his 8th girlfriend, finally. I was happy, for now I won’t be handling him after his breakup. None of his relationships actually lasted more than 4 months, they just eventually lack understanding and call off the relationship.

But now, my brother, Mr. Krishnan “Fuckboy” Iyer was getting married.

I actually wanted to enjoy the sunset but I was there for the wedding. So I went there, shook hands with both the bride and the groom.

After the photo formalities we went and took a seat in the garden.

As my eyes were scanning the whole area of the park, it got stuck. Some girls were clicking pictures near a tree, but I was unable to shift my gaze.

In a crowd of over a hundred, everyone else, except her, was ceasing to exist. It was just me looking at the girl who was posing just for me.

Physically I was present at the table, but she took my soul.

Thrice, in the next two minutes, our eyes met.

She was wearing a pale pink lehenga with Renaissance embroidery in vintage English colors embellished with silver-gold metal thread, pearls and beads. A look that’d put the bride to shame.

I’d never got the courage to talk to someone randomly. But that day was different; she was different. I got up, took a deep breath and said, “Yes, I will.”

“Shabaash mere bete! (Well done my son!)” Navneet said.

“Fuck you.” I replied with a smile.

I took 4 steps towards her, and then came back.

“What?” Navneet asked.

“How will I talk to her? What should I say?” I asked.

“Think.”

“Lemme search it on web.” I said.

“It’s full of impractical things.” He said.

“Then what should I…” I stopped in the middle of the sentence as I saw the drinks counter.

“Call me.” I said and left.

I picked up two glasses of red wine from the counter and started walking towards her on the pavement surrounded by wedding décor. She started walking towards me too. It made me nervous, a moment of panic hit me; I started feeling butterflies in my stomach, but I held myself and kept walking.

Our eyes met and she lowered her gaze. After two steps, she tucked her hair behind her ears, maybe she wanted to show me the earrings.

Just when we were about to cross each other, my phone rang. I, being the poor guy, with two glasses in two hands, with no table around, couldn’t have picked up the phone.

“Excuse me. Can you hold this for a second.” I asked her.

“Yeah, sure.” She said.

The miss call from Navneet did the trick. I lowered my gaze towards the pocket to pick up the phone. And as soon as she took the glass, my phone stopped ringing. I looked her into the eyes and said, “Cheers!”

She took a brief pause and then started laughing; that sound seemed melody to me.

After a brief awkward pause I took a blind shot and said, “I’m Krishnan’s best friend. I guess I saw you at the engagement.”

“I guess I saw you too.” She replied as her looks grew curious.

“You were with Sneha right?” I asked; again taking a blind shot.

“Yeah.” She said with a big smile.

And with that, the DJ went into full swing.

She said something I couldn’t hear. I tilted my face towards her, and asked, “Do you wanna go for a walk down the beach?”

As we started walking towards the beach with soft drinks in our hands, I was feeling myself on cloud 11. I couldn’t believe it was real. I pinched myself.

“It is real. She is real. But why is she with me? She is here for the party. And anyone can easily say that she is the life of any party. But she is here. Am I that good?” Hundreds of thoughts kept running in my mind while my face had a continuous smile and my eyes were glued to her.